knight of the dark
by sergeant peace
Summary: leader of a cohort, a trusted Lieutenant of the Dark Lord himself, and a man who thinks he has nothing to lose, until she came into his life.
1. claimed

Draconis Malfoy rode on the back of his large black Stallion, riding at the head of a Legion of foot soldiers, seven other knights rode beside him, like him, they were clad in black armor, most had their helmets on, skull like masks hiding their identity from most, but Draco kept his off, hating how it narrowed his vision, to his left and right, his trusted friends Crabbe and Goyle riding beside him.

"Well that expedition was fun." Goyle said with a grin, "I missed the feeling of cleaving someone in two."

"The battle only lasted for five minutes." Crabbe complained, "you two got to fight, all I got was dirt in my mouth."

"Then don't let your steed get killed." Goyle laughed.

Malfoy just rolled his eyes, "you two need to get over this blood lust." He muttered, "haven't you heard that berserkers always die a horrible death?"

"As long as my deaths on the battle field, I'm content." Goyle said.

"But I'd rather live." Crabbe grumbled tartly.

Draco shook his head, the so called 'battle' really had been no less then five minutes against a small contingent of foot soldiers still loyal to the old king, he didn't even have to unsheathe his sword for it, not too many of the Death Eater knights had bothered to draw their weapons, only Crabbe and Goyle, who's bloodlust and warmongering were well known throughout England, had even attempted to attack alongside the foot soldiers, Draco looked ahead, squinting, "Zabini, how long until we reach the castle? I've grown tired of listening to Crabbe and Goyle talk."

"Couple more minutes and it should be in sight." Zabini said, "Shall we let the foot soldiers go on ahead?"

Draco thought about it, "might as well" he said, "They get a little pissy when we don't."

Zabini laughed, "FORWARD!" he shouted, and instantly the men cheered and took off running towards a large castle in the distance, the other knights rode forwards too, slightly ahead of the main body of men, Malfoy urged his mount into a steady trot, not falling behind, but not going very fast. Soon he reached the gates, where Crabbe and Goyle were waiting.

"You're just in time to watch the claiming." Goyle said, watching as the men dispersed and started talking to the women, flexing, and talking about their great battle that they had just been through, every now and then someone shouted "CLAIMED!" and the men would cheer as the man would walk away with a women on his arm.

"Hmmph, bunch of idiocy." Malfoy muttered. "This tradition needs to be destroyed, I'm surprised the dark lord hasn't done away with it already."

"Come on, it's not too bad." Goyle said, "sometimes, claiming a women for even a night, could do a man good."

"Yeah, it's real good fun." Crabbe said.

"Didn't the last girl you claim turn out to be a man?" Malfoy asked, making Goyle laugh and Crabbe turn red, Malfoy didn't pay attention as he looked around, the men were still trying to gain the attention of some of the more withdrawn ladies, two soldiers were trying to talk to a woman who was by the well, a woman that looked familiar to Malfoy, she had porcelain skin and dirty blonde hair, her grey eyes had a spacy, dreamy like gaze to them, she looked at the two soldiers, who were trying to impress her, one of them stepped forward and said, "claimed." As he tried to grab her arm, she easily pulled it away.

"No thank you." she said softly, "I just came out to get some water." She started walking back, until one grabbed her arm.

"I laid claim." He growled, "and I will take what's mine."

"Will you now?" Malfoy snarled, coming up behind the soldier, who instantly let her go, "and what's yours?"

"This…this woman…Sir Malfoy." The man finished.

"I am no ones property, thank you very much." The woman said dreamily, "not yet at least."

"But I called claim!" the soldier shouted, and then shrank back as Malfoy fixed him with a glare.

"The rules of claim." Malfoy growled, "are null and void if the woman is claimed by someone a higher rank then yourself."

'But…there's…there's no one who-"

"Claimed." Malfoy said, making the guards eyes widen.

'But…but…"

Malfoy urged his horse forward, coming up alongside the woman, he held his hand out, she looked at it for a few seconds, then simply took it, climbing behind Draco and wrapping her arms around his waist.

"Sir Malfoy…" the soldier started, but stopped as Malfoy glared at him, and then urged his horse forward, away from the crowd, that had stopped and watched.

When they were far enough away, Malfoy looked back at the woman, "what's your name?"

"Luna." She said softly, not looking at him, "Luna Lovegood."

"Loony?" he asked Sneeringly, "What kind of name is Loony?"

"It's Luna." She said patiently, 'Not Luna."

"Well where do you live Loony?" he asked, ignoring her corrections.

"Up on the hill," she said, pointing to a small cottage situated by an oak tree, Malfoy spurred the horse forward and slowed down as they approached, Luna jumped off and landed gracefully on both feet, the bucket of full water still in her hands. She transferred the bucket to her other hand and started walking, straining under the weight, Malfoy rolled his eyes, "give me the damn bucket." He grumbled, taking it from her hands and walking to the front door.

"Such a gentleman." She said with a smile.

Malfoy just grumbled and opened the door; it was a simple dwelling, with a few odd knick-knacks here and there, such as several ropes hanging from the ceiling, Radish-like plants hanging from them. He set the bucket of water on the table and turned to Luna, "where's your parents?" he asked.

"I'm an adult you know." She said, "Though I may be short, I am 17."

"Girls your age usually live with her parents." Malfoy muttered.

"Well…I don't." she said, taking the bucket and pouring it into a black cauldron sitting on a wood fire, she looked at him for a few seconds, not distrusting, but wary.

"What?" he asked harshly.

"N-nothing." She said, turning back to the black cauldron, "I just...what you did back there..."

"I only laid claim so you could get away from those ruffians." He muttered, looking away, "you dishonor my name if you think I'd try to force my self on you."

"Well I don't want to dishonor you." she said with a cheerful smile, "would you like to stay for Dinner? I do owe you for helping me with the soldiers."

He hesitated, "the plan was to just bring you home." He muttered, "I mean…"

"Oh please do stay, I promise I'm a good cook." She said, smiling at him.

He sighed, "Fine…just for Dinner…let me just step outside and get out of my armor."

'Of course." She said, turning to the table and pulling out a knife and several vegetables, including one of the vegetables hanging from the ceiling.

Malfoy stepped out and started stripping out of his armor, putting it by the door, he heard his horse whiney, making him look over, it pawed the ground impatiently, "sorry, she invited me to stay to eat, I'll take the saddle off, but you better stay here." He said, walking forward and pulling the saddlebags and the saddle itself off his horse, "I'll see if she has oats." He said, turning around, where he almost ran into Luna, who was walking out with a bag.

"I thought your horse would be hungry." She said simply, putting the bag of oats on the ground, she walked back inside, "war is hungry business after all." She said dreamily, as she passed under the threshold.

Malfoy watched her for a few seconds, then put the bag in front of the horse, "eat up." he said, "spoiled arse." He started walking in, and jumped when the horse nudged his back, startling him, "oh laugh it up." he muttered walking inside, where Luna was now cutting fresh beef into squares and seasoning them, "where'd the meat come from?" he asked.

"I went by the butcher earlier today, he's a really nice man, always smiling." She said happily, dumping the meat in to the stew, "It'll be ready in a few." She started stirring the pot, "thank you again for helping me with those soldiers, I don't think they had anything noble on their minds before you showed up."

"Hmmph, scum of the earth they are." He said with disdain, "foot soldiers…unruly, undisciplined, just Neanderthals swinging a sword."

"A little harsh." She said, pondering his words with a thoughtful look, "but most likely true, they kept going on about the men they killed in a three hour long battle."

Malfoy snorted, "the so called 'battle' last five minutes." He said with a small smirk, "fifty foot soldiers caught sleeping by a legion, it wasn't a battle…"

"Sounds more like a slaughter…" she said quietly, putting a bowl of stew in front of him, "would you like some wine? Water?"

"Water will be fine." He said, looking at the stew, "got any bread?"

"Sorry, Food shortages." She said, "I suspect Nargles."

"…Nargles?" he asked hesitantly.

"Small little pixie-like creatures, they like to cause mischief by stealing things, the Dirigible plums keep them away."

Malfoy almost laughed, but refrained from doing so, as she was the one who had given him food, "they sound like nasty buggers." He chortled.

"Oh they are, their teeth hurt too." She put a chipped cup of water in front of him, he took a bite of the stew and an explosion of flavor shot through his mouth, both sweet and salty, he forced himself to simply nod.

"Not terrible." He said, after swallowing, "what did you put in this again?" he asked as he started to scoop out another spoonful.

"The dirigible plums for one." She said, "carrots, leaks, onions, beef squares, and a few drops of homemade whiskey from the butcher."

"The butcher brews whiskey?" Malfoy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's also an accomplished singer." She said with a vacant smile as she started to eat her own food.

"Whiskey probably isn't even that good." He muttered.

"I'd give you some, but the last of it went into the stew, he'd probably be willing to sell you a bottle for a couple galleons."

"Or I can just confiscate it, as it's illegal brewing." He said, taking a drink of water.

"Why would you want to do that to such a kind man?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"I'm a Knight, I kind of enforce the law." Malfoy said.

"Oh but he's not doing anything overly bad." She said, "he's simply gaining a little more money, something most people need."

"Like you?" he asked, looking around the cottage, "this place looks ready to fall down."

"I get by with what I have, I don't need anything else but food and water." She said cheerfully.

He watched her, "well, thank you for the stew." He said politely.

"Would you like another serving?"

Malfoy looked at the cauldron still half-filled with stew, "I'll take another bowl." He said, trying not to sound too eager.

Luna smiled and refilled his bowl, handing it back, "what was this expedition about?" she asked him, "They never announce what they do."

"Because that would make us lose the element of surprise." Malfoy said, "We were just scouting, trying to find Potter and his band of rogues." _Potter,_ he thought bitterly of his one time rival, now turned rebel, after the fall of King Scrimgeour, Potter had rounded up every knight and soldier still loyal to the old king and had stolen away, hitting the new Dark Lords armies and supplies whenever they could, "they managed to slip away yet again."

Luna looked at him, "is that bad?"

"Yes, it's the worse thing that could happen." He muttered, then looked at her, "you don't side with those rebels do you?"

"I don't side with anyone." She said simply, "I just go about my business and hope no one tries to stab me."

Malfoy smirked, "don't we all?' he looked out the window and groaning, "Damn, I'm late." He grumbled, standing up, "thank you for the food Loony."

"Luna." She corrected again, "and you're quite welcome."

He walked out the door and put his armor on, Luna followed, and asked, "will you come back?"

"Why would I want to?" he asked.

"I don't know." She admitted, "but I barely ever get visitors, it'd be nice to have one."

He sighed, "Fine, whatever, don't hold your breath." He said, climbing on to his horse and urging it into a dead run, back towards the large dark keep, as soon as he was inside the walls he was jumping off his horse and walking briskly into the large, black granite halls, his hand on the pommel of his sword, soon he reached a large room lit by a green fire, an oak table sat in the middle surrounded by twelve men in black armor, at the head of the table sat the Dark Lord Voldemort, a pale man covered in black robes, his slitted red pupils watching Draco as he took his spot, "welcome, young Draco." He whispered, "What kept you? Nothing bad I hope."

"I had some business in town my lord, and my time ran away from me, it will not happen again." He said, bowing to the man.

"I should hope not…Dolohov, Rosier, what do you have to report?" he asked, turning to two of the men closest to him.

"We tracked a small contingent of the order of the phoenix," Dolohov said, "and were able to kill off most of their forces, Lieutenants Mad-eye Moody and Remus Lupin escaped capture, however, Amelia Bones and

He said nothing, but instead, turned to Draco, "and what have you to report? Draco?"

"We ran into a small contingent of soldiers still flying the kings standard, despite our despite our request to put down their arms, they attacked, and we slaughtered them in due course."

"Excellent…the time of the old king has passed." He said, standing up, "with us in control, the rest of the isles are sure to fall in line, however, the resistance from not only the Order of the Phoenix, but the group now calling themselves, Dumbledore's army, are sure to hamper our progress, from now on, our highest priority is to track down these rebels, and eliminate them, with extreme prejudice."

"Yes my lord. 'They all echoed.

"Draco, I want you and your cohort to concentrate on Dumbledore's army." He said, "Harry Potter has been rumored to lead them, I want you to track them down, and kill all except for potter, you bring him to me, where I shall…make an example, of him."

"Yes my lord."

"Rosier, Avery, Dolohov, concentrate on the Order of the Phoenix, send word to Bellatrix to bring her legion down from Scotland, we'll be needing the extra muscle…the rest of you know what to do, dismissed."

They all stood and bowed to him, before turning and walking out, Malfoy moved to leave, until…

"Draco…" the dark lord whispered, "Stay for a moment, will you?"

"Yes my lord." He said, turning around and standing at attention.

"Stand at ease, my young friend." he said, standing up and walking over to him, "I heard, from Zabini, that you visited a woman, before coming here."

"I did my lord." Malfoy said, 'she was the business I had mentioned, two soldiers were about to take advantage of her, I intervened, and as thanks, she gave me a hot meal."

Voldemort watched him, 'a noble sentiment, young Draco," he said, 'Far noble, then your father ever was…tell me, who was this woman?"

"Her name is Luna Lovegood."

Voldemort smiled, "ah, the Lovegood's, I have not heard their name in years…tell me, is she as…eccentric as I imagine?"

Draco nodded, "she's certainly odd my lord, but she's harmless."

"Good…good…do you feel anything for this woman Draco?"

Nothing," he said truthfully, "a minor acquaintance at best."

"It is best, if it stays as such, her family has long been rumored to be…magical."

Malfoy stiffened, "are you…telling me she's a witch?"

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't." he drawled, "her mother was, her father wasn't, if we're lucky, the line has died out magically, if we're not…we may need to…ah…eliminate the traces."

Malfoy inwardly shuttered at these words, "of course my lord, just give the word and I will do it."

"For now, it will be unnecessary, but be prepared, if it comes the time to kill, I do not need you hesitating."

"I won't my lord, I never have."

* * *

Malfoy sat atop the ramparts of the keep, he was waiting on one of his informants, a woman by the name of Marietta Edgecombe, he hadn't heard from her since his last expedition, he hoped she hadn't been discovered, if she had, he doubted he'd ever hear from her again, a rustling pulled him out of his thoughts, he was instantly on his feet, his hand on his sword as he scanned the grounds below, where he spotted a very familiar looking Blonde, walking through the thick foliage, "she's gonna be the death of me." he muttered, walking down the stairs and out the gates, where she was now knelt, picking something, "what are you doing here Lovegood?" he asked angrily.

"Picking wild parsley," she said, "Feverfew, sweet violet, ooh there's some sage over here too."

He raised an eyebrow, "you're picking herbs?"

"Yes, you'd be surprised how many people come to me when they aren't feeling good, I think it's because my mother always made really good medicine." She said, humming to herself as she picked the plants and placed them in the basket she had, "she taught me a lot before she passed on, so I help as much as I can."

Malfoy watched her, her small hands were pulling the plants out from the ground, roots and all, "why take the entire plant?" he asked, "surely it'd be better to take what you need from it, and then let it grow so you have a steady supply.

"Well that's the problem, I can use almost everything from them, even the seeds, I'll probably keep a few of the seeds to plant when spring comes, but for the most part, I'll dry it out or store it so I can use it later."

He nodded, 'so you're a healer, you didn't tell me that before." He said.

"It didn't seem important." She said, standing up, "I'm going into the forest to see if I can find some Yarrow and Comfrey, they're quite good for healing cuts."

Malfoy watched her leave with a stunned expression, until Zabini's voice shook him out of his stupor.

"Malfoy," Zabini said, walking over.

"Yes?" he asked, turning to Zabini, "has Marietta made it?"

"No, not yet, I'm beginning to wonder if she's dead…"

Malfoy looked down, "What else did you need Zabini?"

"I was wondering if you'd approve of a hunt tomorrow, me and a couple of other men would like to see if we can't scrounge up some fresh meat."

Malfoy nodded, "It'd be good…I'll okay it."

"Thank you." he said, turning around.

"Zabini wait." Malfoy said, "Why did you tell the dark lord I was with Luna?"

He looked at him, "who?"

"The woman!" he said impatiently, "why did you tell him?"

Zabini hesitated, 'he had asked…and I told him."

"Why not just say I had business? As I did when I walked into the hall?"

Zabini looked around, "do you realize that they think someone in our Cohort is a traitor?"

"There's been rumors but…wait…they think I'm the traitor?"

"Avery and Rookwood do, so did Dolohov and Lestrange until last weeks fight." He looked at Malfoy, "no one in the cohort thinks you're a traitor…it's jut…"

"It's just that I'm the new guy." Malfoy said spitefully, "and my loyalties haven't been tested, is that it?"

Zabini nodded, 'when I first told them that you were still in town. Avery and Rookwood exchanged glances, they were already thinking that you were giving information away, and so I let slip that the last I saw of you, you were riding towards a small cottage with a lovely lady, that took away suspicion…I didn't mean to give away any private, personal secrets…"

"Don't worry." Malfoy said, "I was just hoping to keep it silent for a while, but since I can't…"

"Again, I'm sorry." Zabini said, not sounding sorry at all, "I didn't mean to put your relationship on display."

Malfoy looked at him, "how's Pansy?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Oh she's good," Zabini said in relief, glad for the change in subject, "she was talking about heading to Ireland for a few days, bit of a get away you know?"

"I'll see what I could do." He said, "You could even use my family's estate."

"You would do that for us?"

"Of course." Malfoy said, clapping him on the back, "what kind of leader doesn't take care of his people? Now come on, lets go get some food."


	2. the pack

Malfoy watched as a small hunting party of twelve rode toward the forest, Zabini at the head of them.

"I'm surprised you're not going with'em." Crabbe said, coming up from behind, leaning against the wall as he picked at his teeth, "you usually love a good hunt."

"I have prior engagements." He said dismissively, "Marietta still isn't back, and there's been no word from our scouts."

"So…you're worried?" Crabbe asked stupidly.

"Yes, I'm worried, if Marietta is dead, then we've lost our informant in Dumbledore's army, if the scouts can't find them, then we'd be better off traipsing through the country side, hoping to run into them."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Crabbe said, "be good to get some air, maybe you'd gain some color with it."

Malfoy snorted, "I highly doubt that." He muttered, he stood up, "Well, since we're obviously not getting any news any time soon, I think I'll go into town.

"You going to go see that witch girl?" he asked.

Malfoy grimaced, he had been avoiding going to Luna's cottage for almost a week, not too keen in seeing the weird girl again, "maybe, maybe not, might go to the butcher."

"Why?" he asked, wrinkling his nose in disgust, "we don't have to make our own food."

"I heard he's an accomplished singer." Draco said, walking down the steps.

* * *

Draco stood outside Luna's cottage, a bottle of whiskey in his hand he hesitated at the door, he stared at it, wondering if it'd be worth knocking on the door, he still didn't know what possessed him to come back, was it the fact that she may be a witch? Therefore dangerous to be left on her own, or because she seemed so sincere in wanting to see him again, for whatever reason, he didn't know whether it would be worth it, especially since he was wasting time here when he could be looking for his missing contact, he sighed and raised his hand to knock on the door, hesitating.

"No ones home." Luna's dreamy voice said behind him, making him jump, he turned around, finding the young woman stroking his horses snout, she was dressed in a simple white dress and a blue cloak that rested on her shoulders, "hello," she said with a smile, "Were you looking for me?"

"No," he said, "well…yes…but…only because I didn't have any cups for this whiskey."

"I would think that a knight would have cups." She said, walking up to her door and unlocking it, humming a tune to herself as she did, "did the Nargles steal them?"

Malfoy walked in, the strong smell of musky herbs seemed to slap him in the face, "No," he said, "just…didn't have any on me…"

"Will you be staying for dinner? Or are you going to leave after your drink?" Luna asked, pulling two clay mugs out of the cabinet, they were painted in bright colors, making Malfoy's head hurt.

"I…might as well stay, already here." He grumbled, sitting down, "and what's that smell?"

"Oh, the Herbs are drying." She said, pointing up at the ceiling where clusters of herbs were hanging upside down, "Once they're dry I'll store them."

"Better be soon." He said, curling his lip in disgust, 'it smells horrible in here."

"I find the smell to be relaxing, besides, it drives the wrackspurts away." She took a deep breath and sighed in content.

He shook his head, "where were you?" he asked, changing the subject as he was not too keen to find out what a wrackspurt was, "you weren't in town, I would've seen you on my way here."

"I was back in the forest," she said, putting the mugs in front of him while he watched her, looking for a lie, " I was looking for marigold, it's good for open wounds, but they're not in bloom, couldn't find any, I do hope no one gets too seriously hurt any time soon, I wouldn't be able to help them."

He watched her, slowly pouring the whiskey into the cups, "I thought you said the other day that you didn't get visitors." He said suspiciously, "and yet people still come to you for healing?'

"Not all of them." She said, "many prefer an actual Healer, they don't exactly come to look for me unless they're desperate.'

"Then why pick the herbs at all? Surely most of them go bad before you can use them."

"Oh they do, that's why I'm hoping to plant some."

"But why bother at all?"

"Why bother helping me?" she asked, looking at him, "if someone needs my help, I'm going to try to help them, it's what my mum and my dad did, and I wouldn't live up to their memory if I didn't do the same."

Malfoy watched her, she had spoken with such a passion in her voice that it had made Malfoy see her in a different light for a few moments, he let out a sigh and said, "you're something else Loony." He muttered.

"Luna." She corrected in a sing-song voice, walking over to the cauldron, "anyways, I wanted to ask, have you ever seen a crumple horned snorkack?" she asked, "or perhaps a blibbering Humdinger in your travels?"

"A…what?"

"Crumple horned snorkack, they're very rare, said to live in Sweden."

"I've never been to Sweden, so I'd never have seen one." Malfoy said, "Where do you hear about these creatures?"

"Oh my father used to look for them," she said.

"So, did he ever find one?"

"No, but I'm sure they're out there."

"Sounds about as loony as you are." He said, picking up his mug and taking a drink, it burned his throat, though not unpleasant as it was slightly sweet and seemed to warm him up from the inside.

Luna picked up the bottle and took a quick sip before pouring some into the cauldron.

"Oi," Malfoy objected, 'that's mine!"

"Thank you." she sang, putting the bottle back on the table.

Malfoy grumbled and took another drink, smirking a little at the feeling, "you were right," he said, "the butcher makes an excellent whiskey."

"Did you hear him sing?" She asked curiously, 'he sings the most wonderful lullaby for his daughter."

"Didn't get to hear it." He said dismissively, having not cared about the singing at all.

"Maybe next time." She said, spooning some stew into a bowl and handing it to him, he took it with a polite 'thank you' and started eating, while Luna sat down, humming again.

"Aren't you going to eat?" he asked.

"Maybe later, it's still quite early." She said, resuming her humming, Malfoy tried to place the familiar tune, but couldn't quite pin it, he shook his head and started eating again, stopping only when he heard the sound of fast approaching hooves.

"Someone's coming." Luna said unnecessarily, looking out the window.

"Probably Crabbe," he said, standing up, "I'm sure he's bringing news," he stepped out and his eyes widened at what he saw, not Crabbe, but Nott, who was slumped forward on his horse, blood covered him and the panicking horse, who upon seeing Malfoy started to rear back.

"Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!" Malfoy shouted, grabbing the reins and pulling the horse down, attempting to calm it, once it was calm enough, he dragged Nott out of the saddle and laid him down, looking over the damage, the left side of his face was marred by deep scratches, his right arm had been reduced to bloody tatters and one leg was twisted at an odd angle, his armor was twisted and mangled in places, showing torn flesh underneath, as if something had tried to take a bite out of him, "Nott, what happened?" Malfoy asked the half-dazed man.

"W-wolves…" he whispered hoarsely, "Direwolves…ambushed…Zabini…"

Malfoy hefted him up, "Luna, can you help him?" he asked urgently.

She nodded and ran inside, clearing the table, "bring him here." She ordered as Malfoy staggered into the room and put Nott down, he screamed in pain at the jostling.

"I'm going to go find Zabini." He said, "You make sure he doesn't die!"

"Go." She said as she started pulling herbs and bandages out of different spots around her house, Malfoy ran outside, grabbing Notts axe from the side of his horse and jumped on his own, "Go Xavier!" he shouted, driving his heel into the horse's side, which urged the animal to take off into the forest, Malfoy thanked whatever Deity was watching over him that had urged him to bring his sword along that day, he drew it and looked around for any signs of where Zabini was, he found the sign in the form of Notts blood trail, leading deep into the forest, he followed it until he heard the screams and shouts of men and the snarling, barking growls of the Direwolves, he urged Xavier faster until he burst into a clearing, where a grisly sight befell him.

Zabini and three of the men he had left with in the morning stood with their backs to a tree, warding off four large Direwolves with their spears, not one of them were uninjured, claw and teeth marks covered most of them, Zabini himself had three long claw marks on the right side of his head leading up to his forehead, covering his right eye with blood, littering the ground around them were the rest of their party, mauled and being chewed on by several more direwolves, most were dead, except for one who was screaming in agony as two direwolves fought over him, trying to pull him away from each other, Malfoy hefted the axe in his hand and hurled it, catching one direwolf in the head, killing it, he charged forward, swinging his sword in an arc as he passed the second direwolf, lopping hits head off, he nudged Xavier into trampling the four wolves Surrounding Zabini before turning around, "you couldn't stay out of trouble for one day?" he asked Zabini angrily, swinging his blade at a wolf that was getting too close,

"How were we supposed to know they were coming?" he asked, throwing his spear and catching a Direwolf in the neck, he drew his saber, swinging at the wolves, all of whose attention were on the four survivors and the new comer, who jumped off his horse.

"Come on then!" Malfoy shouted, slapping Xavier on the rear and sending the horse galloping away, trampling two wolves in his mad dash.

The wolves snarled and charged, Malfoy slashed one straight through it's open mouth, cutting off the top part of it's head, and stabbing another through the chest, behind him Zabini was wrestling with one wolf, the blade of his saber the only thing keeping the wolf from ripping his throat out, the other three were struggling with the wolves, one had stabbed a wolf and had lost his spear when it jumped back, leaving him only with a knife, Malfoy turned on the spot and caught a wolf in the neck as it lunged for the defenseless man, just as the other two drove their spears through their own direwolves, when they turned, all the wolves were gone, most lying on the ground dead or dying, but one was at the fringe of the trees, watching them with yellow eyes before it turned tail and ran.

"Thank god you got here when you did," Zabini muttered, limping over to Malfoy, "they ambushed us…thirty minutes ago…our horses ran off, we were stranded…I saw Nott get away…but…there were wolves on his tail, when the wolves came back and he didn't…"

"He's being taken care of," Malfoy said, he pointed at the two spear wielding men, "Montague, Higgs, bring those here, we need to make a stretcher for this man." He motioned to the poor mauled man on the ground, still breathing with terror in his eyes, they did as he said, bringing the poles over as he took his cloak off and tied it to them, "come on, heft him up!" Draco ordered, and together they lifted him and laid him onto the make-shift stretcher, they grabbed the poles and hoisted him up between them, Malfoy stood in front of them, "follow me." he commanded, going back the way he came.

"The castle's the other way." Zabini said.

"It's also a twenty minute walk back," he retorted, "in that time this man could die, however, there is a capable healer just ten minutes this way."

"You're staking this mans life on a mere ten minutes?" the last man asked, Draco finally realized that it was Goyle, unrecognizable from the blood and dirt that covered him.

"Ten minutes could mean his life, and if we waste it getting to the castle, then we'd be better off killing him now, now hurry up, quicken the pace!"

Luna watched out the window, looking for any sign that Draco was returning, he had left almost thirty minutes ago, and depending on how far he had to go she might not see him for a while yet, but she had finished tending to Nott, the injured man was now resting in the corner of her cabin, his face and the stump of his arm swathed in bandages, and his leg was set, so now Luna had nothing to distract her from her thoughts, all she could do was watch the tree line and hope to god that Draco would emerge from it.

Her blood ran cold when only his horse returned, slowly cantering over to Nott's horse. There were only two reasons his horse would be here, he had sent it off so it wouldn't get hurt, or he had been dismounted and Xavier got spooked.

"He'll be fine." A hoarse voice muttered behind her, she looked over and saw Nott awake, his remaining eye open and looking at her, "he's a tough one…probably taking his time to look through the direwolves…find one that would make a good coat." He laughed, stopping suddenly with a grunt of pain as it jostled his wounds.

"You need to be still," Luna chastised him gently, "you're lucky to be alive."

"Lucky those wolves gave up their pursuit," he grumbled, "If they hadn't…"

"Enough talking." She ordered, "Try to rest."

Nott just nodded, closing his eye.

Luna looked back out the window again, seeing something rustling through the foliage, she bit her lip, waiting, she let out a small squeak of happiness when she saw Malfoy running out of the forest, four men carrying a stretcher behind him, she quickly ran outside.

"Luna!" he shouted, "he needs help!"

She looked at the man on the stretcher, "bring him inside." She said, running back in.

"You brought us to the Loony bin?" Zabini exclaimed angrily behind her, "he'd be better off dead!"

"Don't say that." Malfoy snarled," She knows what she's doing."

Luna quickly grabbed bandages and the herbs she needed, she pulled out several white towels and tossed them to Malfoy, "put these on his wounds, try to slow the bleeding a bit while I prepare the bandages and herbs.'

Malfoy did as he was told, having Goyle and Zabini hold the man down as he pressed down on the wounds, making him scream, "you two! Anything Luna needs you get." He shouted at Montague and Higgs, who simply nodded, Luna came over with a wet cloth, "let me see."

They pulled the towels away, showing the wounds, Luna started to quickly clean the wounds, "we may have to amputate his leg," she said, "it might be too damaged for me to save…"

"But you'll try," Zabini demanded, "You will won't you?"

"Of course I will, but it may be a waste of time," she quickly reached up and picked some dried Yarrow leaves and ground them up before softly applying the powder onto his wounds, he screamed in pain.

"You're hurting him!" Zabini snarled, pushing her back.

"The pain is necessary," she said calmly, fixing him with a pointed glare, "if you want him to live then he'll have to deal with the pain, if not, then you might as well take him outside to be buried.

Zabini said nothing, just stepped back, Luna went back to work, putting ground up yarrow into several different wounds, the poor man screamed every time, "Draco, go grab that bottle of whiskey, try to get him to drink it." She said, 'I'll pay you back. "She added hastily as she went to the table behind her, pulling out a clean needle and some threat, also grabbing a dried Comfrey plant and bringing it with her, she waited until Malfoy had poured half the bottle into the mans mouth, he drank it greedily,

"Thank you…." He croaked out, he looked at luna with shocking blue eyes, "y-you…you won't let me die…will you…?"

"Not if I can help it." She said lightly, wiping off the yarrow with a damp towel and applying the comfrey.

He screamed again, 'It hurts!" he screamed.

"Give him more of that whiskey." She told Malfoy, "the whole bottle if you have to!"

Malfoy complied, letting the man drink the rest of the bottle.

"Tell me a little about yourself," Luna said calmly as she quickly stitched his skin back together with expert fingers, "what's your name?'

"Marius…." He struggled out.

"That's a great name, strong name," she said, "who's your parents? Are they still alive""'

"Y-yes…m-my dads a shop keeper…" he took a shaky breath as she finished the stitches on his arm and got to work on his chest, "m-me mum was a merchants daughter…"

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked, looking at one wound on his stomach with hesitance, she looked at Malfoy and motioned him to hold him tighter, " go get another bottle of whiskey," she said softly to Higgs, he quickly took off out the cottage while Luna continued to work on the other wounds, leaving the one on his stomach.

"I…I have a brother…G-Gregory." He whispered, "it still hurts…god it hurts…"

"Don't worry, I sent someone to get something for the pain." She said kindly, "you'll have to put up with it for just a little while longer."

"I'm gonna lose my leg…" he said, tears flowing from his eyes, a panicked look entering them, "I'm going to lose my leg aren't I…please don't cut off my leg, please!"

"I won't if I can help it Marius," she said softly, putting her hand against his forehead, "go soak a towel in cold water, he's burning up." she told the Zabini, who nodded hesitantly and ran off, grabbing a towel as he went, "Marius, I need you to stay calm, can you do that for me?'

"I…I don't want to lose my leg," he said, hysteria creeping into his voice, "I…I don't want…I don't…I don't…please…I don't…"

"Marius please, calm down," she said lightly, softly patting his uninjured shoulder, "if you start panicking, there's not much I can do."

"I got something better then whiskey," the man she had sent off said, running in with a small bottle of Opium along with a whiskey bottle, "luckily the barkeeper had it for special purposes."

Luna hesitated, looking at the bottle, "poor a little bit into a mug, and then add the whiskey," she instructed.

"Why not just give it to him straight?"Goyle asked.

"Because Opium is highly addictive, too much of it and he'll have a dependency on it, so it's good to dilute it first, also, some pain will do him good, and will help me know if something goes wrong."

"It also tastes gross." Malfoy said as he took the mug from the soldier and tilted it so Marius could drink it, he drained the cup and in a few minutes his eyes started to droop.

"Okay…now we can sew this one shut." She said, gesturing to the stomach wound.

"Is it that bad?" Malfoy asked.

She nodded grimly, "the damage is very severe, I can sew it shut but if he moves at all while I'm doing it, it could potentially kill him, the Opium will keep him from feeling most of the pain, but it'll still be uncomfortable, I need all of you to hold him still."

The five men took positions, holding down Marius as Luna started to sew the wound shut, every now and then he gave a cry of pain and tried to move, Malfoy and the others did all they could to keep him from moving as Luna continued to sew the wound shut, after fifteen minutes Luna straightened up, "alright, let him go."

The men let go of Marius, and the boy let out a soft grunt as he turned slightly to look at Luna with droopy eyes, "is…is it over…" he asked weakly.

She nodded with a smile, "you were very brave Marius, let me treat your leg and then I'll let you sleep."

* * *

Malfoy sat outside on an upturned rain barrel, looking towards the castle, they had sent Goyle to notify the night guard what had happened and their arrangements for the night, once they had been patched up, Zabini and the others went out into the forest again, , with intentions of burying the dead men of the ill-fated hunting party, Malfoy had wanted to help, But Zabini had waved him off, "you've done enough for us today…you and that girl…get some rest." So here Malfoy was, sitting on the barrel, lost in thought.

"Are you alright Draco?" a soft voice asked, making Malfoy stir a little, he looked over at Luna, who was standing in the doorframe of her cottage, her white dress covered In blood and bits of herbs, her eyes were tired but satisfied.

"I'm fine," he said, looking at her, "are you alright?"

"Oh I'm quite fine, a little tired, but Nott should be stable enough to be moved tomorrow, I think Marius should stay here a little longer, his legs pretty bad.

He nodded, "I'll let them know…thank you, for all your help."

She smiled, "what kind of healer would I be if I had turned you away?" she asked, sitting next to him.

He looked back towards the forest, "you should probably get some sleep…" he muttered, "you've had a long day."

"And you haven't?"

"I'm used to it…never ending battles, always fighting, you get used to it."

Luna smiled, "well, as a healer, I say that you need to get some sleep for your health, you can sleep on the floor inside if you'd like, Nott has my bed, and Marius is still on the table."

"Why is Nott in your bed?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, starting to stand up, "I'll go get him out.'

'No, I put him there." She said, pulling him back down, "he needs it more then I do, besides, if I didn't give it to Nott, then I would've given it to Marius."

Malfoy sighed, "you're too nice for your own good Loony,"

"That was good for you and your friends." She said happily, "If I were mean, you wouldn't be walking away with Marius and Nott."

Malfoy shook his head, letting a soft chuckle out, "whatever you say Loony."

"Luna." She corrected, "my name is Luna, it always has been, and I rather quite like my name."

He didn't say anything, just continued to look into the forest, something had caught his eye, he slowly stood up as he heard a rustling in the foliage; a pair of yellow eyes were staring back, glaring at him, "Luna, get inside." He whispered.

"What?"

"Get inside now," he whispered fiercely as a lone wolf slinked out of the foliage, snarling at Malfoy, it's eyes were fixed on him, but they soon darted to Luna, who had stood up and had slowly started going towards the door, the wolf howled and charged at her.

"NO!" Malfoy snarled, running at the wolf as he drew his knife, he met it in the middle of the field, it slammed into him like a rampaging horse, knocking his breath out as it brought him to the ground, it snarled in his face, lunging for his throat, Malfoy got a hand into it's throat and pushed back, keeping it far enough away so that it's teeth weren't an issues, it's claws, however, continued to dig into his arms and chest, he looked to the side and realized his knife was too far away to be of any use, "you mangy mutt!" he growled, slowly pushing the wolf off him, he would be damned if he died lying on his back, he kicked the wolf in the stomach and sent it flying back, he jumped up, ignoring the stinging pain in his arms and charged at it again, this time he caught the wolf as it jumped at him and slammed it into the ground, the wolf snarled and threw it's head back, trying to bite Malfoy's shoulder, Malfoy punched it and sank his own teeth into wolfs ear, the wolf let out a sharp squeal of pain and struggled out of his grasp, and bounded away from Malfoy, growling softly, it's hackles raised; suddenly, it moved it's eyes towards Luna again, who was standing in her doorway, watching the fight, the wolf easily jumped round Malfoy and ran at Luna, who instantly slammed the door in it's face and held it closed as it rammed into the door again and again.

"I'm not done with you!" Malfoy snarled, jumping on top of the wolf and getting it into a strangle hold, he wish he had the wit to pick up his knife before coming after it, but he couldn't worry about that now, instead, he tightened his grip on it's throat, making it choke and gargle in pain as he cut off it's air supply, he held it there for several minutes until it's struggling slowly died down, and it's eyes glazed over, soon it went completely limp in Malfoy's arms and he let go of it, kicking it away with a deep breath.

"Draco…" Luna's muffled voice came through the door, "Is it over?"

"Y-yeah…" Malfoy muttered, Luna walked out, her eyes widened at Malfoy's wounds, "Malfoy, you're hurt!"

"Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed." Malfoy said sarcastically as Luna ran inside and quickly grabbed what was left of the bandages and herbs and ran outside, she ripped open his shirt, revealing several gouge marks, "none of these have to be stitched, but they're deep." She muttered as she started mopping up the blood and applying herbs, Malfoy just sat there, blushing slightly by her boldness, as she worked, several voices could be heard coming there way.

"It came this way!"

"how could you let it slip through your fingers Montague!"

"It's not my fault! The damn thing was fast and my leg is still hurt!"

"Whatever we need to…oh god Draco!"

Malfoy looked up and saw Zabini and his men running towards him, "about time you lot got back." He said weakly as Luna put Yarrow into his wounds, making him wince slightly, ignoring his pain he glared at them, "what took so long?"

"That last surviving wolf showed, up, tried to attack, we ran it off and tried to track it down…it got away from us."

"And came right to me." Malfoy finished bitterly, glaring at the dead wolf.

"There's no markings on it…how'd you kill it?" Montague asked after looking over the wolf.

"Crushed its wind pipe." He said, looking at the gray wolf, "lost my knife when it first tackled me, couldn't find it, so I did the next best thing…"

"You…wrestled a direwolf…" Higgs said in awe, 'and won…"

"He also took a chunk out of it's ear, look." Montague pointed at the ear Malfoy had bitten, they all looked at Malfoy in awe.

"It was trying to bite Me." he said defensively, 'Ow!" he exclaimed as Luna pressed more herbs into his wounds.

"Sorry," she mumbled as she started wrapping his arms and chest.

"Draco Malfoy, Wolf slayer," Higgs whispered, earning him a slap from Zabini.

"We all have that title after today Higgs," Zabini said dryly, but looked at the dead wolf, "but this wolf seemed to really hate you Malfoy, it tracked you down just to try and kill you."

"That or it saw two humans and thought 'fresh meat'." Malfoy grumbled.

"Still, what are the odds that this particular wolf would find you the same night you helped us kill its pack?"

"A million to one I reckon." Montague said, then his eyes widened, "wolfsbane."

"What?'

"Wolfsbane, he's the bane of the wolves."

"Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane." Higgs mused, "gots a bit of a ring to it doesn't it?"

"Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane, the protector of healers and injured soldiers everywhere!" Montague said, laughing, Malfoy just groaned.

"You two are awful," Malfoy complained, "I don't need a title as ridiculous as that."

I rather like it," Luna said with a smile, humming as she finished

"It does have a ring to it," Zabini agreed, looking at Malfoy with a smirk, he walked into the cottage and came back out with five mugs filled with what was left of the whiskey, he handed everyone one, and then raised his, "to Sir Malfoy Wolfsbane, protector of us all!"

"Here, here!" Higgs exclaimed, raising his mug before downing it.

Montague inclined his slightly and took a drink; Malfoy just placed his mug on the barrel.

"To Malfoy," Luna said dreamily from Malfoy's side, drinking the whiskey.

"All of you can sod off." Malfoy muttered, though a small smirk was creeping onto his lips.


	3. tender moments ruined

Draco sat in a meeting with the other death eaters, absentmindedly turning a ring on his finger.

"We still haven't heard from the western forces." Dolohov said, "I sent Nott and Rowle to find out their fates, but they're silence is worrisome."

"In a few days," the dark lord started, "if we have not heard from them, take a cohort and go west, the west needs reinforcing anyways." He looked over at Draco, "anything to report, wolfsbane?"

Draco's ears perked at the title, it had taken some getting used to, Higgs and Montague were responsible for the title being spread amongst the legion, along with the story behind out, he couldn't turn a corner without a soldier saying the title, with many of them saying it with an almost reverent awe s, he assumed only the men would use it, not the dark lord himself, "still no word from my contact my lord," Draco said, "I sent Zabini to seek her out three days ago in Windsor, her last known location, in three days time, if he hasn't returned, then I will personally take a squad to investigate myself."

He nodded, "how fares Young Nott and his comrade?"

"Miss. Lovegood tells me that Young Nott will be able to walk again in a few weeks, though he did loose his arm," Draco said, "Marius is still weak, and his leg is damaged beyond repair, she says it will heal…but he won't walk normally again."

"A shame," the dark lord rasped, "I had heard that the boy was sculpting into a fine warrior, it's a shame that he won't be able to join the legion again…anything else to report?"

"No my lord."

"Excellent, disperse, and carry out my commands."

Draco stood and strode out of the room, right outside the room, Higgs, Goyle, and Montague were waiting, "any new orders?" Montague asked.

"None yet, but be ready." Draco started walking, the three soldiers following, as they walked, servants and soldiers quickly parted, murmuring apologies for getting in the way.

"Well if it isn't the wolf pack!" someone said in amusement, Draco looked to his right and found Lestrange and McNair leaning against the wall, McNair was sharpening his large battle axe, a favorite pastime of his, Lestrange had his hand resting on the pommel of his broadsword, "gracing us lowly mortals with their presence."

Draco ignored him, he looked back at the three, his so dubbed 'Wolf Pack' so named mockingly by the other death eaters, and respectfully by their fellow soldiers, "get some rest," he said, "tomorrow I want to go out and visit the graves, it's been over three weeks since you laid them to rest, I want to make sure no one desecrates the grove."

They nodded and walked away, Lestrange walked out into the courtyard, striding over to Xavier.

"And where are you going Young Malfoy?" Lestrange asked, walking side by side with McNair, they had followed him the instant they knew he was alone.

"I don't believe it's any of your business Dolohov." Draco muttered, checking over Xavier's saddle.

"I think it is," Lestrange growled, "you see, the rest of the legion may think you're hot shit, but we know better don't we?"

"Sure do," McNair muttered, resting his axe across his shoulders.

"And what do you know better?" Draco asked, not bothering to look at him.

Lestrange drew his sword, "look at me when you address me you disrespectful brat," he snarled.

Draco felt his lip twitch slightly as he urged himself to continue preparations.

"Don't think I don't notice you sneaking out of the castle every other night, not returning until the early hours of the morning, when you don't think anyone's awake." He stepped forward and prodded Draco in the back, "you're walking on hot coals traitor."

Draco quickly spun, drawing his own sword and hitting Lestrange's out of his hand before putting the point to his neck, "you dare accuse me of treachery?" he asked, deathly calm, "you dare presume that I would go against the Dark Lord?"

McNair brought his axe into fighting position, only stopping when Dolohov held his hand up, "I do," Dolohov said, "what else would you be doing every night."

Draco took a few steps forward, keeping the side of his blade against Lestrange's neck, "I check on my soldier," he said, "make sure he's comfortable; see, unlike you, I care for the general welfare of my men, especially the ones who are injured." He slowly removed the blade and returned it to it's sheath, "next time you question my honor, I will not remove the blade without first removing your head." He climbed up onto Xavier and dug his heels into the beast's side, taking off at a dead sprint out of the castle, leaving Lestrange fuming with anger.

* * *

Luna watched the window, as she did every other night, waiting for Draco to come, as he did like clockwork every night for the past three weeks, his claim was to check up on Marius, but Marius had been moved into the local healers hut earlier the other day, so he could be watched over closely by the healer, and his family, she had let Draco know by sending a letter with a passing soldier, and yet he still showed up at her door, claiming, "I was just in town seeing Marius, thought I might as well see you." it was a flippant, weak excuse to come see her, and Luna looked forward to it. She smiled as she saw a dark shape leave the castle an go into town, no doubt it was Draco, gone to see Marius to legitimize at least some of what he said, but she assumed, and was correct in doing so, that in fifteen minutes or less, he would come up the hill, hesitating, as he did every night, at her door before knocking so she could let him in. with this thought in mind, Luna walked over to her cauldron, stirring the contents inside with a hum, smiling slightly when she heard a knock at the door, she stood up and smoothed heir skirt out slightly before walking to the door and opening it, revealing a worn and tired Draco Malfoy, who tried to hide his smile upon seeing her, "Loony," he greeted.

"Luna." She corrected, as she did every night, all the while smiling softly, "Were you seeing Marius again?"

"Ah…yes, that I was." He said, hesitating, "and um…I was wondering if I could sit a spell."

"Of course," she said, walking in, "go ahead and sit down, it's good you came when you did, stews finished."

Draco walked in and sat down, the familiar musk of dozens of different herbs reached his nose, but it wasn't as overwhelming as it used to be. He watched her work at the cauldron with a smile tugging at his lips, a smile he hid as she turned around with two bowls full of stew, "thank you," he said, taking the bowl from her.

Luna sat down across from him, "How was your day?" she asked politely.

"It was rubbish," he said after his first mouthful, "my contact still hasn't showed, I had to send Zabini to go find her."

"I know that," she said, "Zabini stopped by before he left."

"He did?" Malfoy asked in surprise.

She nodded happily, "he stops by every now and then, so does Goyle and Higgs…oh! That reminds me!" she stood and went over to a chest beside her bed.

"Looks like you have more visitors then before." Malfoy said, taking a drink of his cup.

"Mhmm, they're sweet too, Goyle brought me some rare herbs that I've been looking for, and Zabini brought me some sweets, they always thank me for helping them."

Draco smirked, "it seems they've adopted you as our unofficial healer." He said.

"Mhmm…Close your eyes," she said to him, making him look over with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"Close your eyes." She said again, she had her back to him, clutching something in her hands that he couldn't see very well.

"And what are you going to do when I do close my eyes?" he asked uneasily.

"Just close them," she urged with amusement. Draco rolled his eyes and closed them, waiting; something soft and heavy was put into his hands, "okay, open them now." She said giddily, Draco complied, his eyes widening when he saw a wolfs pelt in his hand, it was the same sleek gray and white as the wolf that had attacked him, it even had the bite mark on it's ear, he slowly stood up and looked at it, "it's the Direwolves pelt…" he murmured.

"I had Goyle help me clean and skin it," she said, looking down with a smile on her face, "I made it to where the head could be used as a kind of hood…I know it's getting colder…and…it can be held together easily enough with a brooch…or a pin…it's just my way of saying…thank you…"

Draco looked at her; he slowly put the pelt down and walked over to her.

"Do…do you not like it?" she asked hesitantly.

Draco stopped right in front of her, "I like it." He admitted, looking down at her, she was still looking at her hands, nervously playing with a silver ring on her finger, "In fact…" he took her hands into his, making her look up at him, "I love it."

A small smile appeared on her lips, "I'm glad you do…" she said softly.

Draco let a rare smile break through his usual stoic expression, the smile caught Luna off guard, having never seen him smile, "Draco…" she said softly, 'you're smiling…"

"Am I?" he asked, "I hadn't noticed."

"You look…Handsome when you smile." She said, putting a hand on his cheek, then quickly withdrawing it "not to say…that…you're not handsome all the time…I mean…you look extra handsome…and…your smile really is magnificent…and…and…"

"Luna you're rambling." he said with a small chuckle.

"W-what?"

"I said you're rambling."

"n-no…before that…"

"What? I said your name; Luna is your name isn't it?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

She let out a light laugh, "yes…it is…"

He put his hands on her hips, bringing her closer and making her blush, "thank you," he said, "for the pelt…"

"It…it was nothing…" she mumbled.

"No…you didn't have to make that for me…you didn't have to help me when I was injured...nor did you have to help Nott and Marius…"

"You know I couldn't just let you stay injured…" she said softly, "My heads not full of wrackspurts…"

He raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe it is…now…" she mumbled.

"Are you blaming me for it?" he asked, leaning forward a little, putting one under her chin and tilting her head up slightly.

"You're certainly not helping it." She mumbled leaning forward a little, putting a hand on his chest.

Draco craned his neck down, his lips mere centimeters from hers, when there was a knock on the door, breaking the two out of their moment; Luna stepped back from Draco, blushing a beat red. Malfoy looked at the door with a scowl and walked over, wrenching it open, making the messenger jump in fright.

"S-S-S-Sir M-M-M-Malfoy." He stuttered, "I…um…I…uh…uh…"

"Spit it out," Draco drawled.

"S-Sir Zabini S-Sent me." he said, "h-he said he f-f-f-found Miss Edgecombe…dead…"

Malfoy closed his eyes, "damn…" he muttered, "where's Zabini, why didn't he come tell me this himself?"

"t-there's…t-t-there's trouble in Windsor, a…a detachment from Dumbledore's Army took over the small town and barricaded the outskirts…we…can't reach the ferry's…which means…"

"They've cut us off from the northern cohorts…" Malfoy said, his eyes widening, "go to the castle, let the guards know, ill be along shortly." He turned and looked at Luna, who was now sitting in her chair, hugging her arms, "I have…I have to go…" he mumbled.

"Okay…" she whispered.

Draco started walking away, but then stopped and went back in, grabbing the wolfs pelt, 'thank you," he said to her again, and walked out, undoing the brooch keeping his cloak around his shoulders, he let it fall to the ground and replaced it with the wolf pelt, pinning it with the emerald and silver serpent brooch and jumping onto Xavier, "HYAH!"

* * *

The dark lord was sitting on his throne, absentmindedly petting his snake Nagini, there was a knock on the large doors, "enter," he said.

Draco strode in, the wolf pelt cloak on his shoulders, he fell to a knee in front of the Dark Lord, bowing his head, "my lord, I bring urgent news from Windsor, a detachment of Dumbledore's army has taken the town and is holding it."

The Dark Lord stood up, "how has this come to pass?" he asked.

"I do not know my lord, a messenger barely delivered this news a few moments ago."

"This is disturbing." The Dark Lord said softly, pacing, "Windsor is our only ferry across the Thames, and until Nott and Rowle are able to drive our enemies back in the west, we won't be able to go around the river…we could always try to go through London, but I fear their home guard will not allow us through "

"Allow me to take my Cohort to Windsor." Draco said, "We'll retake the town."

The dark lord strode over to him, "yes, that will be good," he said, "I will join you, to better assess the situation.

"My lord?" Draco asked in shock, "you haven't left the castle since…"

"I know, it's about time I remind them why I rule." He said with an evil glint, "We leave first thing in the morning, let your men know, you are dismissed."

"Yes my lord," Malfoy said, standing and turning on his heel, walking towards the door.

"Draco,"

Malfoy stopped, "my lord?"

"That is a magnificent pelt." He said, "You live up to your title."

"Thank you my lord…"

* * *

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Luna watched from outside her cottage as the cohort that had marched back into town almost a month before set off once again, their standard flying high, five men in dark armor sat atop horses, riding at the front of the column, in front of them, on a pure black stallion rode the dark lord, his hood up, covering his face, Luna felt a shiver go down her spine at the sight of him, she continued to look at the column, trying to pick out Draco, after five minutes Luna laughed at herself for not seeing him sooner, he was one of the men in dark armor, easily discernable from the others because of the pelt resting on his shoulders, as they got closer she could easily see his face, he looked up at her, his expression unreadable for a couple of seconds, until he raised a hand, a smile on his face, Luna let herself smile and waved. The other Death Eaters watched their exchanged with silent amusement. Luna felt tears wet her cheeks, and she quickly turned around, wiping the tears away, she looked again, meeting Draco's eyes, he held her gaze for a little while, before looking ahead. She closed her eyes and sent a silent prayer to whatever God was listening,

 _Please…bring him back…please…._


	4. war in Windsor

Draco rode alongside Goyle, "so, did you tell Lovegood goodbye?" the large berserker asked.

Draco shook his head, "didn't have the time," he looked at Goyle, "you've been visiting her?"

"Of course," Goyle muttered, "she patched us all up, saved Young Nott and Marius, least we could do was make sure she had company."

Draco said nothing, just looked ahead as they slowly but surely approached Windsor, it had taken two days of hard marching, though the men barely showed any fatigue; they had marched on dutifully, only stopping for a quick bite of rations and then it was right back to it, now the Dark Lord called for a halt, "Draco." He called, "to my side."

Draco spurred the horse forward, coming to a halt right beside him, 'yes my lord?" he asked.

"What is wrong with this picture?" he asked, motioning to the town below them.

Draco looked, the barricade the rebels had made was crude, made of what appeared to be bits of furniture and overturned wagons, but that wasn't what the dark lord meant, two hundred yards from the barricade was a small encampment, with men in chain mail darting between the tents, gathering what looked to be supplies, in front of the encampment was a wooden barricade composed of logs, to protect the small force from any attack the rebels may throw at them, "did Avery find out and send a detachment?" he muttered.

"No," the dark lord said, "they are not of our legion, take your wolf pack and go see what these men are here for."

Draco looked at the other death eaters and motioned for them to follow, he thundered down the slope, Goyle and Crabbe beside him with Montague and Higgs bringing up the rear, within a few minutes they were in the camp, several of the men fell into a deep bow at the sight of Draco, one ran off to a slightly larger tent, "where is your commanding officer!" Draco snarled.

A few seconds passed before a plump man in very tight fitting leather armor came out of the tent, "Sir Malfoy!" he greeted, plastering on a fake smile, "we had not thought…we didn't think…"

Draco regarded him with cold eyes, "what detachment are you from?" he asked, looking at the men's shoddy and outdated armor, and they're old, slightly rusted weapons.

The fat man cleared his throat, "I-I'm Captain Frisk, of the Windsor home guard."

"the home guard?" Montague asked incredulously, "what are you doing out here?"

"we…were forced from the town by the rebels, but rest assured we are doing all we can to retake it."

Draco looked around the camp, "you seem to have been camped here for quite some time." He noted, looking at slightly weathered wooden barricade, which still showed signs of being built recently, "how is it that I barely received a message of this two days ago, and yet you look as if you've been here for weeks?"

"Well…I…that is to say…" Frisk stuttered, looking scared.

"And where," Draco started, jumping off Xavier, "is the man I sent here eight days ago? All he sent back was a messenger."

"H-he left! Ages ago! He said he…he was headed to London!"

Draco narrowed his eyes, "Crabbe, Goyle, search the tents."

"Now wait just a-" Frisk started indignantly, until Draco put his sword tip to Frisk's gluttonous belly.

"You will stay right here captain, that's an order." Draco growled as Crabbe and Goyle jumped off their horses and started going through the camp, none of the men stopped them, no one wanted to get on the wrong side of the large, imposing goliaths who lumbered into the tents one by one, in no time they returned, with a very indignant looking Zabini, who was rubbing his wrists, "We found him tied up in the last tent." Goyle growled, glaring at the captain.

Draco dug the blade slightly into the mans neck, "you dare imprison one of my men?" he asked angrily.

"W-we…he…he tried to kill us!"

"That's a bald face lie!" Zabini spat, stalking towards the captain, "you placed me under arrest after I sent my squire to go alert Sir Malfoy about what was happening here! I'm surprised you didn't try to kill him!"

Draco turned back to Higgs, "you're relieved of duty," he hissed, withdrawing his sword and turning around, then turned back around and punched the man square in the face, "and that's for not alerting us sooner!" he jumped back onto Xavier, "you three!" he snapped at three of the Home guard soldiers, "place your former captain under arrest!"

They complied instantly, dragging the man away, Draco then looked around, he pointed at an archer, "you there, Archer, how long has this stand off been going on?"

The man jumped to attention, "sir, we've been at this for close to three weeks! The enemy has fortified their position, at least three-dozen knights, archers, and spearmen."

"How did they capture the city if the Home Guard was here?"

"They overwhelmed us sir, pushed us out of the town…I'm embarrassed to say that they had the jump on us…hit us in the morning and killed off half the home guard before we knew what was what."

"And you're sure they're with Dumbledore's army?" Draco asked.

"Yes…I saw their leaders…the Iron Knight…a-and the Highland warrior"

'Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnegan…" Draco muttered, looking at his men, Montague gripped the pommel of his sword tighter at the mention of Seamus.

"There's one more thing sir." A spearman said from beside Malfoy, "The enemy…they're…they're just kids…"

"What?" Malfoy asked.

"They're…young'uns sir…barely fifteen years at the oldest...not includin' the ones in charge mind you…"

"And these…school boys over powered you?" Higgs asked with a snort of amusement, earning him a look from Montague.

"As we said, we were taken by surprise…"

Draco looked towards the barricade, _children…have you sunk this low Potter? Or are you this desperate,_ "Crabbe," Malfoy said, "return to the dark lord, give him the report, and move the cohort up."

"T-the dark lords h-here?" the archer asked in fright.

Draco's lip curled into a sneer, "yes, and he doesn't like failures, not at all." He looked over at Zabini, "took your time didn't you?"

"Piss off," Zabini said sulkily, "if they hadn't of got the jump on me."

"And we all know how hard that is," Draco said, making the others chuckle, "how did you find out about Marietta?"

"Saw Seamus string her up myself." Zabini said, "was the second day I was here, I was looking through the spyglass, and they had her arms bound as they led her to a tree…she was crying somethin' fierce too…he put the noose around her neck and had a horse haul her up…she was dead within minutes."

Draco scratched his jaw, "Seamus has always been somewhat of a brute…but even I wouldn't have guessed he'd kill someone like that…specially a woman."

"She was a spy, what did you want him to do, lock her up?"

"It's what Potter would've done…either he's getting more cruel…or he doesn't know."

Within minutes the sound of marching feet filled the air as two hundred legionnaires marched up to the camp, the dark lord and Crabbe at the head of them.

"My lord," Draco said, giving a half bow in respect.

"Draco," he said, "Crabbe tells me, that these rebels are mere school boys."

"Yes my lord, the only real warriors among them are two of Potters lieutenants." Draco said, "Shall I tell the legion to surround the barricade, dig in."

"No." he said, "I want you to form up the legion, and march straight for the barricade, lock shields, to protect from spears and arrows, once you are inside the barricade, unleash hell…no survivors."

Draco's eyes widened, "My lord…surely this is a bit extreme!"

He turned his cold eyes to Draco, studying, "do you doubt my strategy?" he asked icily.

"No my lord…but they're just children…school boys whose minds have been poisoned with promises of grandeur."

"Then they will die as idiotic children do." He said darkly.

"My lord-"

"You still argue with me Draco?" the Dark lord asked dangerously.

"No my lord…I simply want to point out…when word gets out about this…about us slaughtering dozens of children; I say children because they will not be seen as soldiers, but children, more people will be willing to Join potter against us."

The dark lord was silent for a few minutes, "there is truth in your words Draco, what would you suggest?"

"I suggest we give them a chance to surrender, I'll ride out with Crabbe and Goyle…we'll give them an ultimatum…surrender or die."

The dark lord gave a cruel smile, "issue the warning, either they surrender as soon as you give it, or they die."

Draco felt a lump rise in his throat, "yes my lord." He turned Xavier towards the barricade and nudged him into a trot, Crabbe and Goyle followed him, when they were far enough away, Goyle finally spoke, "Draco…this isn't right…"he said, his voice oddly soft, 'they're just kids…"

"I know," Draco muttered, "but we have our orders…"

"You know most of them won't surrender…right?" Crabbe asked.

"We have to try." Draco said, "but no matter what happens here…I'll take full responsibility.

* * *

Dean Thomas sat in the towns Chapel, praying, he prayed for the lives of his men, those he lost, an those he still had, he prayed for the war to be over, and he prayed for mercy, for his soul an Seamus'.

"Dean." Someone said behind him, shaking him from his prayers, he looked back and found Seamus standing behind him, wearing a kilt with sparse armor, he had a buckler strapped to his arm and had his hand on the pommel of a basket hilt claymore at his side, "what're ye doin' in here?"

"Praying." Dean said, standing up, "Seems no one prays anymore, guess in times like this we forget there's a god…"

Seamus walked over to him, hesitating, "I…I wanted to talk to ye about Marietta…I…I know what I did was…questionable…"

"You strung her up in front of her home town, with her begging and crying for mercy." Dean said sharply, "it's beyond questionable."

"I had too," Seamus muttered, "She was a traitor…a bloody spy."

"She was an unarmed civilian in their eyes." Dean said, "You should've waited until we were back at headquarters, Harry wouldn't have approved of it."

Seamus said nothing, "I let my anger get the best of me…" he said, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me," Dean said, turning back to the alter, "I'm not going to be the one who'll judge you in the end."

Seamus shook his head, "Stopped believin' in tha' years ago." He turned around and started walking out, and almost got bowled over by a scrawny teen in bulky armor.

"Sorry Seamus!" the boy struggled out, rolling off the man and standing up.

"Bloody hell Colin!" Seamus said angrily, "What're ye doin' runnin' all Willy nilly, almost killed me ye did!"

"I'm sorry! It's just…there's death eaters right outside the barricade! Fifty yards at least."

Dean looked over him in surprise, "do you know which ones?"

"N-no sir, all I know is they're death eaters…one of thems wearing some kind of pelt."

"Are they attackin'?" Seamus asked.

"No, just standing there…the one with the pelt said something about a proposition."

"Come on Seamus." Dean said striding out of the chapel "lets go see what our enemy wants."

* * *

Draco looked up at the sky as he waited in front of the barricades, watching as dark clouds slowly rolled in, thunder rumbled softly as lightning flitted between the clouds, he brought his hood up to shelter himself from the cold.

"What's taking them so long?" Goyle muttered, glaring at the barricade, "it's getting cold out here, and not all of us have Wolf pelts."

"Why does he get a wolf pelt?" Crabbe asked grumpily, "He wasn't the only one who fought the wolves, everyone who fought should get a pelt."

"In which case you still wouldn't have one Crabbe." Goyle snidely remarked.

"Oh sod off you-"

"Quiet." Draco hissed at them as Dean Thomas appeared at the top of the barricade.

"Sir Malfoy," Dean said coldly, 'to what do we owe the displeasure of your presence."

"I come bearing a proposition from the Dark lord!" Draco shouted.

Dean said nothing, just continued to glare at him.

"As you can see, we have an entire cohort here, waiting for the order to attack, when the order is given, all enemies inside that barricade will be slaughtered, no quarter given…" he let that sink in to all of them, 'however, the dark lord, in his merciful ways, has given me permission to let any who wish to, put down their arms and leave! No harm will come to them, however, if you do not put your arms down-"

"We know what will happen!" Dean shouted, "and we're all prepared to die for our cause!"

Immediately a cheer erupted from the defenders, some beat their weapons against their shields, or the wood of the barricade.

"No…no you don't understand…" Draco whispered, and then shouted, "The dark lord himself is here! No quarter-"

"We'll die fighting you traitorous git!" one of the smaller defenders piped out, making more cheers sound.

"LISTEN TO ME DAMMIT!" Draco snarled, "THIS ISN'T A GAME FOR SCHOOL BOYS! THIS IS WAR!"

"We know tha'!" Seamus shouted, appearing beside Dean, "and when you're cohort comes, we'll show them just how well us 'school boys' fight!"

They cheered again, one drew an arrow and loosed it right at Draco, it went right past his head, leaving a cut in his cheek.

"Fools…" Draco whispered, "FOOLS! YOU'VE CHOSEN YOUR OWN DEMISE!" he turned Xavier around and urged him forward, Crabbe and Goyle followed suite, soon they were back with the Cohort, "FORM UP!" Malfoy shouted, "NO QUARTER!"

The men cheered before forming into their ranks.

Draco looked at his 'wolf pack' "I won't make you come if you don't want to…" he said softly, "killing children is not what we were trained to do."

"No one leaves the pack!" Higgs declared, "If one wolf is in battle, we're all in battle."

"Git," Montague grumbled, slapping Higgs in the back of the head, "but he's right Draco, we're in this together, besides, I need to pay Finnegan back for the last time we fought."

Draco smirked, "dismount," he said to them, and they all complied, "front of the herd."

"Draco," the Dark lord whispered as they moved, Malfoy turned to him and sank into a bow.

"I will be following up the rear." He said, "You have complete command."

"Thank you my lord." Draco said, turning and walking to the front of the cohort, "COHORT! LOCK SHIELDS!"

The front of the cohort immediately raised their shields and locked them, edge to edge, behind them; the second rank lifted theirs and rested them on the lip of the first cohort's shields, forming an effective shield wall.

"FORWARD!"

The men let out a cheer and they started marching forward, the six death eaters in front of them had their helmets on and shields ready, Malfoy himself stood in front of them, he knew all they had to do was get within five feet of the flimsy barricade and they could easily push through it, they just had to be protected from the spears and arrows that were sure to be launched at them, his suspicions were correct as they got to the fifty yard mark, and a hail of arrows fell upon them, far behind him Malfoy heard a scream of pain, "Hold steady!" Malfoy shouted, grunting at the impact of a spear against his shield, "keep moving men!"

* * *

/

* * *

Dean Thomas stood atop the barricade, "keep firing men!" he shouted, "don't let them scare you!" he picked up a spear and hurled it at Malfoy, the legionnaire stopped in his tracks from the force, but continued on.

"They won't stop!" Colin shouted.

"Prepare to defend the Barricade!" Dean shouted, and his men cheered, "Draw swords!"

* * *

Malfoy looked past his shield, "Now, NOW CHARGE! NO QUARTER!"

The men cheered and charged past the death eaters and into the barricade, easily toppling it before jumping over the scattered pieces of wood and at the meager defenders.

"FOR HARRY POTTER!" one of the defenders shouted and cheer went up, they charged savagely at the cohort, the two sides slammed into each other, sword against sword, steel bit into flesh, the screams of the dead and injured soon filled the air, Crabbe and Goyle were in the thick of it, Goyle swung his sword with a grim face, sword fighting with several of the boys, Crabbe went about it with a gleeful light in his eye, the prospect of battle always fueled him, making him a worthy adversary.

Zabini strolled into the fight, the anger of being locked up for so long spilled over, he was ruthless to anyone who crossed his path, dispatching them quickly one after the other, Montague and Higgs worked like a well oiled machine, their movements in sync from the years of training they had done side by side. Malfoy was quickly dispatching his enemies, his sword a blur in his hand as he jabbed and stabbed into the weak points in their armor, the fire of war shining in his eyes. He engaged one boy in battle dispatching him after five minutes of hard fighting, he heard someone running up behind him, so he turned on the balls of his feet and came face to face with Colin as he drove his sword into the boy's stomach.

Colin let out a strangled gasp, his sword falling from his hand, the fire died in Malfoy's eyes as he realized what he had done, looking into the face of the young boy who realized he was going to die drove the fight out of Malfoy, "No…no, no, no…" Malfoy mumbled, pulling his sword out and dropping it; he guided Colin to the ground, the fighting around him forgotten, Colin looked up at Malfoy, blood, trickling out of his mouth,

"T-Traitor…" Colin whispered as the light left his eyes.

Malfoy slowly let go of Colin, looking down at his blood soaked hands, he felt tears trail down his cheeks as he looked at the blood, his hands slowly starting to shake, finally the sky broke and torrents of rain fell down upon battlefield, still Draco didn't move.

"You dare cry for the boy you just killed?" someone asked from behind him, Draco slowly looked back, and found Dean standing behind him, his armor grimy and covered in gore, a cut above his eye soaking his face with blood, "you dare cry for the boy you murdered?!"

Draco felt anger rise in him, he stood up, grabbing his sword as he did, "You dare accuse me of murder?" he snarled, "you who gave boys weapons and marched them into battle? Their blood is not on my hands, but I'll gladly soak them in yours!" he swung his sword out, Dean stopped it with his shield and swung his own sword at Malfoy, so began their dance of death, the two well trained swordsman fought with every ounce of strength, blocking and parrying each others attacks, all the while the battle that raged around them was slowly dying down, it wasn't until Dean slipped on a piece of wood that Malfoy finally took his chance, he shot forward and stabbed between the shoulder and chest plates, driving his blade deep into Dean's shoulder, Dean let out a scream of pain as he fell to the ground, his sword arm now useless, Malfoy dug the blade deeper and deeper, until it was up to It's hilt, he let go of the handle and glared down at Dean, before pulling a dagger out, intent on killing.

"Sir Wolfsbane." The Dark Lord whispered, making Draco stop, "leave him."

"My lord?" Draco asked angrily, "He's the enemy leader…"

"I know, which means he has valuable information that could lead us to potter, you don't have to heal him, but you can't kill him either."

Draco felt his lip turn into a wordless snarl as he pulled his sword out of Dean's shoulder, instantly three Legionnaires ran forward, dragging the injured man away, he looked around him, seeing dead bodies everywhere, all of the rebels had been killed, while quite a few legionnaires had been killed as well, the cries of the wounded could be heard, "you men!" Draco shouted, pointing at a squad of soldiers, "start retrieving our wounded, when you're done with that collect our dead and prepare them for transport, have the Home Guard collect the dead rebels."

"Yes sir!" they sounded off, and ran to carry out the task as Malfoy cleaned his sword on the grass below him, then he turned to the Dark Lord, who was now standing behind him.

"You've done well today Draco," he said, putting a hand on his shoulder, the praise fell heavily on Draco, he found himself unable to thank his lord, "I want you and Zabini to return to the castle, your cohort will remain here and finish the clean up, however, you and Zabini have earned a rest."

"Yes my lord…thank you…"

* * *

Seamus dragged himself out from under an overturned wagon, he had been pinned under it when the barricade had been thrust aside, and had only been able to wrench himself free when the rain loosened the ground enough for him to claw himself out, now he stood looking at the battlefield, still littered with the bodies of the rebels, a couple of legionnaires walked amongst the dead, dragging a few away to a line that was prepping them for burial, Seamus' started walking, with a heavy heart, towards the outskirts of town, careful to avoid any wandering patrols, it was one of these patrols; that had stopped by a tree he was hiding behind, that unintentionally conveyed news that made his blood run cold.

"All dead, except for the Iron Knight," one of the soldiers said, "they say the dark lord has some 'questions' to ask him."

"Hmmph," growled an older soldier, "That means the poor lads gonna get tortured until he spills his guts, and then killed, he should've fallen in battle."

"Nothing they can do about it now huh?" another asked as they started moving away, "best to just pray he gives the dark lord what he wants and move on."

As soon as they were gone, Seamus started moving quicker; soon he was over the bridge and stealing a horse from a farmer, "I have to tell the others." He growled as he urged the horse faster through the falling rain.

* * *

Luna sat at the window, watching the horizon, she was waiting for a glimpse of the Cohort returning, she had done this every night since they had left, at first she hoped they would turn around, say it was a joke, then she was hoping that they would avoid a fight, solve things peaceful, but now, she was just hoping that when they came back, her friends would still be alive, that Draco would still be alive. She watched until the sun finally went down, and with a sigh she turned and went to her cot, pulling the covers back, a knock at her door made her look up sharply, fear slowly creeped into her mind, was it a messenger that she didn't see? She slowly walked to the door and, with shaky hands, opened it, she almost started crying when she saw Draco standing in front of her, his armor was off and his shirt was blood soaked and dirty, she quickly ran forward and hugged him.

"Luna…" he whispered softly, breathing in her familiar scent of herbs, holding her in his arms.

"It's been two weeks." She whispered, "I was so scared something had happened…"

"Took a little while to get back." He mumbled softly, "Got stalled by bandits on the road."

"Is that why you're bleeding?" she asked worriedly, looking at the blood on his shirt.

Draco looked down, confused at the blood, "m-maybe…"

Luna guided him to a chair and sat him down, pulling his shirt off, he had several new gashes on his chest and shoulder, and another three on his back, she quickly started cleaning the wounds and wrapping them with gauze, "you're always so careless…" she mumbled, "like you don't mind being injured…"

"Sometimes I don't…" he said quietly, catching her hand before she moved away, "sometimes I could care less what happens to me…if I get injured, so be it…at least I have a healer I know that can look after me."

"I won't always be there," she said with a light laugh, looking into his grey eyes, "so as your healer…please…please be careful."

"Do you say this only as a healer?" he asked quietly.

She looked at him, "I say it as your healer…and your friend…and as someone who cares about you." she whispered softly.

Draco touched her cheek softly, she closed her eyes at his touch, her own hand coming up to hold his, they sat like this for a few seconds, until Malfoy leaned forward and kissed her, it was a chaste kiss, so sweet and innocent that for a few seconds Luna didn't react as warmth flooded her body, she slowly opened her eyes and looked into Draco's eyes, they were full of a sadness that you could only see in a soldiers eyes, but they were also full of tenderness and love; with this in mind, Luna leaned forward and returned the kiss. Malfoy smiled softly against her lips as he put his other hand around her, caressing the small of her back as Luna put her arms around his neck, keeping him close, Draco slowly trailed his hand down to her waist as he kissed her neck, making Luna let out a small sigh, "Draco…" she whispered softly, running her hands through his hair as he picked her up and carried her to her cot, laying her down gently as he continued to ravage her neck and collarbone, his hands wandering shamelessly up her skirt, making her gasp in surprise, "Draco…" she said softly.

"Luna," he said back, kissing her deeply as her hands held onto his bare back, having the presence of mind only to be careful of his bandages; soon the two were lost in the throes of passion, nothing mattered to them but each other, how they made each other feel, how the other sounded, how a simple touch could send pleasure and warmness through their bodies, it wasn't until they were lying in the cot, her head lying against his bare chest, his arms around her to keep her close, and a blanket covering them haphazardly, that they started thinking of the consequences of what they had done; and yet, they made no sound, they did not have to convey their feelings verbally anymore, they didn't have to justify what they did. And as they slowly slipped into sleep, Draco kissed the top of her head and whispered, "Claimed."


	5. in charge

Harry sat in silence, listening to Seamus' report of the battle at Windsor.

"We held the barricade close to three weeks," he said, standing in front of Harry, his lieutenants Hermione and Ron, and his cohort leaders Ginny and Neville, "we would've held it longer if Neville had gotten the reinforcements to us."

"We were held up by you-know-who's western cohorts," Neville muttered, "hit us like they knew our address."

Seamus nodded, then continued, "a few days ago, the third cohort came through Windsor led by Malfoy, he gave us a chance to surrender, we told him to put his surrender up his ass. Battle started…lasted maybe forty minutes…by the end of it all our soldiers were dead…Dean was captured…"

"You mean you left Dean!?" Ginny asked angrily.

"What was I supposed to do?" Seamus asked, "Fight an entire cohort and the home guard on my own?"

'No, but you could've tried to save him!" she snapped.

"Ginny," Harry warned, making her back off, though she still glowered at Seamus, Harry stood up, walking over to the window, he looked out and down towards the old castle of Hogwarts, the one hideaway that was safe from Voldemort, "how many men can you gather up for a raid?" he asked.

"I'm a little short on men right now," Seamus muttered, "maybe two…"

"I could get a squad from the cohort." Neville offered, stepping forward.

"Same," Ginny said.

"No, we only need about eight people," Harry said, looking at Seamus, "and we already have two on our team."

 **One week later.**

Draco rode towards the castle, his wolf pack at his back, his hood up to protect him from the freezing rain.

"We need to report to the dark lord." Zabini said, "he'll want to know that the insurrection in the New Forest."

"I have a feeling he already knows," Malfoy said, inclining his head to the ramparts where a familiar robed figure was watching them approach.

"He never waits for anyone on the ramparts." Goyle muttered.

"This is either really good, or really bad…" Montague said, fidgeting nervously as they went through the gates.

"Don't be nervous boys," Draco said, jumping off his horse, "I'll go report to him, you rub down the horses and get them put up."

"You want us to put away your horse?" Zabini asked, "or will you be using it later?"

"I'll attend to him when I'm done." Draco said, ignoring the knowing grins the other men had as he walked up the steps to the ramparts. "My lord," he greeted his master, giving him a respectful bow.

"Ah, young Draco," the dark lord said, not even looking at him, "I trust the insurrection has been put down?"

"yes my lord, all dead, they fought to the last man."

"and it was just you and your wolf pack, yes?"

'Yes my lord."

He nodded, "I'll be leaving soon," he said, "I shall be taking Rosier, Avery, and Dolohov to London, it is high time they fall to their knees in fealty, while I am gone, I am putting you in charge of the castle. Defend it, allow no one to penetrate our walls."

"Yes my lord."

"I do not give reign over my castle so easily." He warned, "Do not fail me."

"Have I ever my lord?" he asked.

"That you haven't…but there's a first time for everything." The dark lord finally turned his red eyes to Draco, scanning him, "that will be all, you are dismissed."

Draco bowed and walked away, pulling his hood further over his head, trying vainly to keep the cold out, he quickly walked into the keep and went to his room, quickly shedding his armor and putting it on it's stand, and then put his wolf skin cloak back on before walking back out, before he went too far he was stopped by Zabini.

"Draco," he said, looking around, "what did the Dark Lord need?"

"He told me I'm in charge of the castle." Draco said, "he's leading an expedition to London, and he's left me in charge of the defense of this castle."

Zabini nodded slowly, "congratulations." He said, cracking a small smile, "guess your lord of the castle for a few weeks."

"Guess so," Draco said, returning the smile, before walking past him, "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go see a certain healer."

Zabini smirked, "it's been almost a week since we left, you sure she remembers your face?"

"Oh ha-ha." He said dryly, "I'll be back tomorrow."

"I know," he said dismissively, 'go have your fun."

Draco shook his head and walked out, heading straight for Xavier, he jumped onto the horse and took off, going right back into town.

* * *

Luna danced around her cottage, twirling and laughing as she went, stopping only when she almost collided into Draco's chest, "Draco!" she said happily, throwing her arms around him as he spun her around, kissing her.

Luna laughed against his kiss, "when'd you get back?" she asked softly.

"Thirty minutes ago." He said, looking down at her, "I'm sorry I had to leave so quickly after I'd just gotten back, orders came in…"

"I know…" she said, "I understand…you're a soldier…" she looked down slightly, "orders come first."

Draco lifted her chin slightly, looking her in the eyes, "orders come first, after you." he said, softly kissing her forehead, making the smile return, she slowly stepped away, "are you hungry?" she asked, walking over to the cauldron, "and did you see any umgubular slashkilter's?"

Draco watched her and laughed, "yes to the food, no to the slashkilter's."

* * *

Draco watched as the first cohort slowly marched away from the town, beside him stood Zabini, who was absentmindedly twirling a knife in his hand, "put that away, you're making me nervous."

"Sorry, bored." Zabini said apologetically, still twirling the knife.

Draco snatched the knife out of his hand glaring at him.

"You need to relax mate." Zabini said, 'Nothing's gonna happen."

"He's right," Goyle said, walking up with Crabbe behind him, "no ones stupid enough to attack this stronghold, so take the week off, take Luna on a trip to find Blibbering Humdingers."

Draco rolled his eyes, "I can't leave my post," he muttered, "but it would be good for Luna to get out of that cottage, spend her time somewhere other than the forest."

"Bring her to the castle." Crabbe said, sitting on the edge of the ramparts, "maybe throw some kind of ball."

"I think the dark lord would die of shock if he came back and found a full blown ball happening here." Zabini mused, "Probably kill everyone who participated in it."

Malfoy cracked a smile, "Your not wrong…no…best if I just visit her at the cottage like usual."

* * *

/

Harry watched the dark castle from his position on the outskirts of the forest, "the cohort just left." He said, looking back at the seven others who had joined him, Seamus, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, a guard named Ernie Macmillan, and an archer named Justin Finch-fletchley, they were all sitting on a fallen tree, waiting for the time to move, Ron was sharpening his Axe, Hermione was twirling an arrow in her hands, Ginny was tapping her fingers against her sword, and Neville was writing something in his leather journal while studying a plant.

"Why don't we just sneak in now?" Ginny asked impatiently, "With most of the legion gone-"

"There's still an entire Cohort in the castle." Neville said without looking up from his journal, 'our best hope is to sneak in at night, maybe put out a distraction.'

'What distraction would get the entire cohort to completely abandon their posts?"

"How about…Harry Potter?" Harry asked, "with a little explosive expertise towards the end." He nodded to Seamus who just grinned, "alright, here's the plan."

* * *

/

Draco woke up to someone pounding on the door, 'what…" he groaned, looking at Luna who was still asleep beside him, he carefully got out of bed and walked over to the door, he opened it and found a concerned looking Goyle, "what the hell do you want?" he asked, rubbing sleep from his eyes.

"You need to get to the castle now." Goyle said urgently.

"Why?" he asked, looking back as he felt Luna's hand touch his shoulder, she was now standing behind him, looking at Goyle inquisitively, smoothing out her nightshirt as she did.

"Potters at the castle…he and that damn Scotsman are raising hell!"

Draco immediately turned around and started gathering his things, quickly putting on his boots and shirt, as he went he looked out the window, seeing the flames coming from the castle, "Luna, stay in the cottage." He said, clasping his wolf skin pelt on.

"Draco…"Luna whispered.

Draco belted on his sword and walked over to Luna, kissing her forehead, "stay in the cottage." He said again, "please." And then walked out of the cottage, looking at Goyle as he went, "keep her safe." He said.

Goyle nodded, "anything else?"

"I'm going to need your shield." He said, climbing onto Xavier, he took Goyle's shield and urged the horse towards the burning castle.

* * *

/

Harry dueled against two soldiers at the same time, weaving in between them and dodging both swords while trying to get past their defenses. "Seamus! I need help!" he shouted over at the Scotsman, who was duel-wielding his claymore and a axe against three other soldiers.

"I'M A LITTLE BUSY AT THE MOMENT!" Seamus snarled, digging the blade of the axe into one of the men's neck.

"SCOTSMAN!" Montague shouted, striding out of the castle, pushing soldiers out of the way, pulling out his sword as he went.

"Asshole." Seamus greeted, killing another soldier before running at Montague, the two clashed in the middle of the courtyard, sword and shield against claymore and axe, sparks flew as they glanced off each other.

"You'll pay for what you did in Windsor, and the dark forest." Montague growled, kicking Seamus back.

"How is Marietta?" Seamus asked, swinging his axe, catching Montague's sword, "still can't walk can she?'

Montague just let loose a snarl forcing Seamus back against the wall, struggling to block the now frenzied attacks.

"Seamus!" Harry shouted, running towards his friend, only to be blocked by Draco, who slammed his shield into the running man, sending him to the ground, "Don't get up." Draco growled, putting the tip of his blade underneath Harry's neck, "You men!" Draco shouted at a few members of his cohort, "head into the castle, I'm sure some of Potters men are in there right now."

"Still following delusions of a mad man I see." Harry muttered as the soldiers ran off to carry out their orders.

"The only mad man I see is sitting in front of me." Draco growled, "sending children to fight a mans war, hanging a woman in front of an entire town."

"What?" Harry asked in confusion, before slamming Draco's sword away from his neck before knocking Draco's legs out from under him; then jumped up, holding his own sword to Draco's neck, "What are you talking about?"

Draco kicked harry back and jumped up, 'don't act Innocent Potter!" he snarled, clashing against Harry, "these people don't move without your say so!"

Harry said nothing, just concentrated on blocking and returning attacks, he delivered a powerful blow that sent Draco's shield flying across the courtyard, now, without a shield, Draco's attacks were much stronger.

"Could you go grab the shield again mate?" Harry grunted, locking blades with Draco.

Draco responded with a growl and a kick to the chest, "Submit!" Draco shouted.

"Make me." Harry retorted, stabbing at Draco's stomach, he hit the sword away and responded with his own attack.

An arrow slamming into Draco's shoulder interrupted their battle, making him drop his sword and run for cover.

"Harry run!" Hermione shouted from atop the ramparts, loosing another arrow alongside Justin, who was aiming at an unsuspecting Montague, catching the knight in the neck.

"Montague!" Malfoy shouted, hiding behind the stalls, as more arrows flew at him.

Montague tried to speak, but all that came out was blood.

"MONTAGUE!" Higgs shouted, running out of the keep, a spear in his hand and blood running down from his temple, "MONTAGUE! NO!" he hefted his spear and threw it at Justin, catching him in the shoulder. He continued to run towards his downed partner, sliding to a halt beside him, "Montague!"

Crabbe stumbled out of the keep, dodging an Ax, Ron was behind him, wielding the Ax, Crabbe parried the Ax with his sword, glaring at Ron, "Damn Weasley!" he snarled.

"Stupid Git," Ron retorted, kicking Crabbe back, Ginny ran out from behind him, supporting an injured and tortured looking Dean, "Get Dean out of here!" Ron shouted at Ginny, stopping Crabbe's sword with his Ax's handle, Ginny just nodded and kept running, Dean hobbling along, explosions started going off, Seamus had ignited several firebombs and were throwing them anywhere he thought they would cause the most damage.

"CLOSE THE GATES!" Draco shouted at the guards on the ramparts, shielding his eyes from the fire flaring close to him. "CLOSE THEM NOW!"

The guards scrambled to follow their orders, dodging arrows to get to the levers to release the gate. But by the time they got it closed; Ginny, Dean, Seamus and Harry had gotten out, Ron ran up the steps to the top of the ramparts, helping Hermione with an injured Justin before jumping over the ramparts, Malfoy limped out, looking at the burning Keep and the dead bodies, his eyes fell upon Higgs, who was crying and holding Montague's motionless body, looking up at the sky with dead eyes, Zabini limped out of the keep, his shirt covered in blood, "Malfoy," he rasped.

"Crabbe," Malfoy said, looking over at the large man, who was still staring in shock at the fire, "get a team together and start putting out the fire," he looked over at Zabini, "get some men and start collecting the bodies, prepare them for burial…" he limped over to Higgs, putting a hand on him, "Mourn him later, we have work to do." He started walking, going towards the gates.

"How can you not even blink…" Higgs asked softly, not looking up from Montague.

Malfoy stopped, but didn't say anything.

"How can you just…keep giving orders and not even care that one of your men is dead!" he shouted, tears streaking down his cheeks.

Draco slowly looked at him, "if you think that about me," he muttered, "then you really don't know Me." and with that, Malfoy walked towards the gate, shouting for them to open.


	6. Punishment

Zabini sat with Higgs, Goyle and Crabbe in Luna's cottage, Luna was sitting on her bed, tears trailing down her cheeks, it was three days since the raid and during that time the Dark lord had returned, and placed Draco under arrest, "Malfoy's gonna hang for this…" Higgs muttered, "The dark lord isn't a forgiving one."

"Draco's one of the best commanders the dark lord has." Zabini said, "he won't kill him…but he will make an example of him."

"Flogging?" Crabbe asked, "wouldn't that make the death eaters look…weak?"

"Not weak, " Higgs muttered, "this'll just show that not even a death eater can escape the dark lords wrath."

"Will Draco be alright?" Luna asked softly, making the men look at her.

"We'll make sure he is." Zabini said.

"I'm gonna go tomorrow." Luna said.

"Luna…" Higgs started, "it's not going to be pretty…Malfoy wouldn't want you to watch what's going to happen."

"I'm going to be there…for Draco…"

"Draco would want you to stay here Luna," Goyle said, "and in all honesty…we want you to stay here…the dark lord might decide it'd be better to punish him through you…"

"And we can't have that happen." Zabini said, "So you'll stay here…okay?"

Luna looked like she wanted to argue, but bit her tongue, "okay…"

* * *

Draco stood in front of his lord, looking straight ahead, around him stood the other head death eaters, including his aunt Bellatrix.

"So…young Draco." The dark lord started, his voice barely above a whisper, "I leave you in charge of my castle, and give you complete control over the home garrison…and yet not only did you lose our prisoner, but you allowed Harry Potter to escape, along with his top lieutenants, what have you to say for yourself?"

"Nothing my lord," Malfoy said, "I take full responsibility for what has happened; the burden falls on no one else but me."

The dark lord narrowed his eyes, "are you sure about this?"

"Yes my lord…"

He stood up, looking down at Draco, "Remove your armor," he said.

Draco wordlessly reached up and undid his breastplate, letting it fall with a clang to the marble floor; he did the same with the rest of his armor until he was standing in a shirt and pants.

"Macnair," he said, motioning to one of the death eaters, "the chains."

Macnair walked forward, shackling Draco's hands.

"To the courtyard." He said, addressing everyone, they all stood up and walked out, Malfoy at the front of the small group, they lead him out into the courtyard, where the entire Legion was waiting, standing stock still as they watched Malfoy walk out, his head held high.

"This isn't right." Zabini muttered, watching them tie Draco to a whipping post, "he had no control over what happened!"

Higgs nodded slightly, "it wasn't…but he wasn't here when it started…."

"You blame him for that?" Zabini asked, "We were the ones who told him to go and spend time with Luna, that was on us, not him."

Higgs just looked ahead, "where's Goyle?" he asked Zabini.

"He's with Luna." Zabini muttered, "has to stop her from storming down here."

Higgs sighed, "why do we do all this?" he asked, "put up with these punishments, and let some of our best commanders get whipped for something they had no control over?"

"It's how this is." Zabini muttered, fingering a pendant around his neck, "the glorious reign of the Dark Lord."

"Draco Malfoy!" the dark lord shouted, his voice reverberating off the walls, "you have failed in your duty of protecting this town, and this castle, do you deny these charges?"

"No my lord." Draco said, looking his lord dead in the eye.

The dark lord narrowed his eyes, "your punishment," he said, "a hundred, to be doled out by Walden Macnair."

Macnair walked forward, pulling a whip off his side and uncoiling it, it had barbs going through the leather all the way down to the handle, he walked forward and ripped the back of Draco's shirt open, "you need something to bite on kid?" he asked softly, 'no one will look down on you if you do."

Draco gave the slightest shake of his head, "I'm fine…"

Macnair nodded gravely, before taking a few steps back, he lashed out with the whip and caught Draco on his left shoulder blade, the young knight gave a slight grunt but didn't give anything other then that, he continued to stare right at his lord as Macnair brought the whip down three more times, each time the barbs caught on Draco's skin, but Macnair skillfully removed them with a flick of his wrist. He brought the whip down like this ten more times before the dark lord stopped him.

"Are you tickling him or whipping him Macnair!" he asked angrily, "I barely see any blood."

Macnair hesitated, then said, "sorry my lord," then brought the whip down harder, this time he tore open Draco's back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade, Malfoy gritted his teeth as the barbs bit into his back, again and again Macnair brought the whip down, and again and again Draco just gritted his teeth as he felt blood run down his back, all the while staring right at the dark lord.

Zabini clenched his fist as he watched, "a hundred lashes with that damn thing could kill a man." Zabini muttered, starting to move forward, Higgs and Crabbe stopped him.

"Do you want to be punished too?" Crabbe asked softly.

"Draco's strong Zabini, he can handle it." Higgs muttered, "maybe we should go get Luna…he'll need her after it's over."

"STOP!" the dark lord shouted, making the three wolves jump, they looked over to their lord and he was standing and striding over to Draco, Macnair stepped back, not sure what was going to happen, "are you too proud to scream Draco?" he asked coldly, "or is this some kind of silent protest against me."

"I will not give anyone the pleasure of hearing me in pain," Draco muttered, "The burden is mine to bare, mine to feel." He looked at his lord, "if that is a crime, then punish me accordingly, _my lord."_

Zabini's eyes widened, what had gotten into Draco that he would talk to the Dark lord in such a way? Even putting venom into the very title that once held so much reverence for Draco.

"You will show the dark lord the respect he deserves!" Bellatrix shrieked at her young nephew.

"Hold your tongue Bellatrix." The dark lord growled, before striding over to Draco, he looked the boy in the eyes and saw pain ever present in his eyes, he put his hand to Draco's neck, then pulled a dagger out and slashed Draco across the face, Draco let out a half strangled gasp as he fell to his knee's, Voldemort continued to slash Draco, across the chest, across the back, his arms, "too proud to let it out Draco!" he snarled.

Draco let out strangled gasps, every inch of him burned in pain, he slowly looked up, blood running down his face, he looked the dark lord right in the eye, but said nothing, just stared at him.

"Macnair," the dark lord said coldly, "you were on 83 lashes."

"My lord…" Macnair started.

"Would you like to take his place for the remainder?" he asked, "with Bellatrix being the one who doles out the lashes!?"

Macnair gripped his whip and raised it.

"Wait!" Zabini shouted, running forward, everyone looked at him in a stunned silence as he fell to his knee's in front of the dark lord, "My lord," Zabini said, "Please, I humbly implore you, allow Draco lenience!"

"You dare-" the dark lord started.

"He saved all of our lives here." Zabini said, keeping his eyes down, "he organized us when everything was Chaos, he pulled us together, kept us from wallowing in grief! Please my lord."

The dark lord looked at him, then looked around, the entire legion was watching him, some were gripping their weapons, others looked ready to run, he looked down at Zabini, then said, "I will agree…if only to keep my cohort commander."

Macnair quickly walked over to Malfoy, undoing his chains and slowly lying him on the ground, Higgs ran over to help, hauling Draco up and slinging one of his arms over his shoulder, he gave a quick bow to the dark lord and started walking towards the gate, Zabini following, supporting Draco on his left side.

Macnair watched them go, 'with that much blood loss…he won't last the day…"

"That's what I'm counting on Macnair." The dark lord said, walking away.

* * *

Zabini watched as Luna treated Malfoy's many wounds, "he's weak…" Luna whispered, "too much bloods' been lost…"

"Will he pull through?" Higgs asked.

"Yes…but he won't be going on any raids anytime soon." Luna mumbled, she looked at them, "Can you…give me some time alone with him?"

The three soldiers nodded and walked out, Luna looked at Draco, "you're punishing yourself…aren't you?" She asked softly, putting a hand on his chest, "why…why do you feel the need to take on these burdens? You're only one man Draco, it's not all your fault…you can't keep…you can't keep taking responsibility for everyone's faults…" she looked at him but he didn't stir, she sighed and stood up, kissing his cheek, "you better wake up soon…you…you jerk…"

* * *

/

Seamus sat in the courtyard of the old Hogwarts castle, looking up at the stars.

"Seamus." Harry said, walking over to him.

Seamus looked at him for a few seconds, before looking back up, "how's Dean?" he asked.

"He's resting…roughed up, but he swore that he didn't give out any information."

Seamus nodded. "I did what I had to in Windsor." He said.

"Seamus-"

"She was a spy who was giving away our position, she was lying to us…all of us!"

"She didn't deserve to die Seamus." Harry said, "not like that, not so publicly."

"She was lying to us." Seamus said, glaring at Harry, "she was putting us all in danger!"

"Then you should have kept her detained and brought her back, so she could face trial."

"I knew what she was, so I took matters into my own hands."

"That's not how things are done Seamus!"

"You don't know what it was like Potter!" Seamus snapped, "to have trusted her so deeply, to have opened up, and let her just walk in and…" Seamus trailed off, he looked down, "I loved her Potter…" he muttered, "and to have her betray me…us…to have her just throw away…everything…"

"Seamus…" Harry said, putting a comforting hand on the scots shoulder, "you have to let it go, yes, she betrayed us all, and I know you feel hurt…but you have to forgive and forget."

Seamus looked at the ground, "can't do that potter…not yet."

Harry looked at him, "then I'm sorry to say, but you're confined to guard duty for a few months…I'm sorry…"

Seamus said nothing, just nodded, he stood up, "alright potter…have a good night…" and with that he walked away, leaving Harry alone, the young leader let out a deep sigh and sat down on the stone bench that had been occupied by Seamus, his shoulders sagged and he seemed to age several years as he sat there, looking at his hands.

"Harry…" Ron said, walking up, "we just got a message from our contact in the Dark castle."

"What does he have to say?"

"Malfoy was punished for the raid." Ron said, "whipped within an inch of his life…sliced up by he-who-must-not-be-named when he wouldn't scream."

"He's still alive?" Harry asked in amazement.

"Barely, he's being healed right now by Luna…"

Harry perked up, "Luna? She's…she's in…" he stood up, "she's at the dark lords castle?"

"No, she's living in a cottage outside the castle…she still won't contact us…"

Harry ran a hand through his hair, "what's her relationship with Draco?"

"Our source doesn't know, there's speculation, but nothing else."

"Maybe it's time we pay her a visit." Harry muttered.

"Wouldn't if I were you." Ron said, "She said she wanted nothing to do with either side, not since…"

"I know…but she's in danger being that close to the castle…that close to Malfoy."

"Nothing we can do about it." Ron said, "Just hope that she knows what she's doing…"


End file.
